I went out clubbing for the first time in a long time and here are the things I noticed: a) Heels are pretty but my feet are now dead b) if you're self-conscious about dancing in front of others just know that alcohol will really lower your inhibitions and you'll be dancing like there's no one around you in no time c) whoever drinks vodka straight up has been hurt in their lives and needs help because that shit is vile d) clubs are like the zoo but for people. It's interesting seeing people pursue possible love interests.
leaving yourself messages that are doubly incomprehensible to the earthly world because 1) you were drunk and 2) they refer to extremely specific terms about a hobby or activity like
"you wanna edh your izzet well heres your pre edh decklist godspeed you shinging diamond motherfucker"
[EDIT: The information in this post has been largely superseded by the character page I have on Mar. If there's any conflicting information or the characterization in this post doesn't match, the character page should be believed over this post.]
Though my last answer might’ve already made this clear, I take SR canon very…loosely when it comes to constructing my boss’s history. Personally, I don’t see much of an issue with this, because I don’t particularly care much for the canon after SR2 (and especially after SR3), but it might be a little hard to follow along with, just because I’m not making it very clear what I’m taking and what I’m leaving. So if anything’s confusing, just holler at me and I’ll explain it.
2. What is your favorite headcanon about the Boss?
I was really looking for an opportunity to talk about her early life, so:
Mar grew up in Saint’s Row while the Carnales, Rollerz, and Vice Kings were fighting over it. What she remembers most clearly from the time is the sense of relief and peace that washed over her neighborhood when the Saints finally got a big upper-hand and started kicking (and keeping) the three other gangs out. Her dad worked at the shipyards and also moonlit as the local mechanic, while her mom picked up work wherever and whenever she could. Things were always tight when she was a kid and teenager, so the money her father brought in from working on the Saints’ cars and the money her mother occasionally brought in from catering one of the Saints’ parties made up a significant part of the family income.
One of the reasons she got involved with the Saints—and one of the big reasons she’s stuck with them through thick and thin—is that there’s part of her that can’t completely get over how she viewed them from the age of six onward: Big, strong, wealthy people with nice clothes and nice cars and solid friendships who protected her and her family from the turmoil of gang warfare and made the neighborhood a relatively safe, comfortable place to live. It’s a very idealistic view, but also a very important one to her; her early memories of the Saints play a large role in how she leads the gang today and what values she encourages/demands in all of its members.
7. Who’s your favorite Homie?
I also got this question twice, which is actually good, because I couldn’t really pick just one.
For this ask, I’m going to go with Shaundi. Outside of the fact that I just like Shaundi and have ever since I pulled up to that house in the Trailer Park district and did some sick jumps to get her to be my lieutenant, I think that her relationship with Mar is something that’s really developed over the course of the series.
Whereas Mar’s probably had a pretty strong bond with Pierce since they first got to know one another, I think Shaundi was probably a harder read for her, so to speak. Mar’s involvement with drugs starts and ends at throwing back a forty on the weekend with some Saints; her family’s had a long and thoroughly unpleasant relationship with drugs, and she’s seen the lives of multiple family members get torn apart by alcoholism and other kinds of drug abuse. Unsurprisingly, then, Shaundi’s entire personality and lifestyle—as presented in SR2, anyway—is sort of…a turn off for Mar, to say the least. Mar first approached Shaundi and asked her to be part of the Saints because she’d caught wind of her and her connections just walking around Stilwater, and figured that she’d need someone in the gang with tight connections with the drug world in the city if she wanted to build a really solid financial base for the Saints. She honestly didn’t expect much of Shaundi in terms of actually being a lieutenant and pulling her fair share of the weight…
…And came to be very pleasantly surprised when Shaundi proved her wrong again and again. She might not be the best at fighting, but she’s a come-out-of-nowhere star when it comes to strategy and building/maintaining business and personal contacts. Shaundi’s very much a behind-the-scenes sort of organizer, something that stands in almost complete opposite to Mar’s “jump in and do it with my two bare hands” approach to leadership and problem solving, and the two actually complement each other very nicely in a leader-lieutenant relationship. The same could be said for their personal relationship, as well; Shaundi’s drug use is never something they see eye-to-eye on, but of all the Saints lieutenants she’s the best at getting Mar to relax and unwind and often helps her see different or alternate ways to solve an issue that the boss might not otherwise come up with. Similarly, Mar tends to bring out a more aggressive, focused side in Shaundi that makes her an even more effective lieutenant, and she also gives Shaundi a crash course in self-defense and combat of all types after her run in with Veteran Child.
Over the course of SR2 and the years following it, the two develop a strong, mutually beneficial relationship that’s just…different from Mar’s relationship with the other core group. They’re really close in a way that’s different from how Mar relates to Johnny and Pierce and every other member of that core circle, both present and future. That closeness carries over through the events of SR3 and 4, in spite of the pretty large personality changes that they both go through. (I’d get into more specific details, but honestly, SR3 and 4 are really where I start diverging from canon and it’d probably turn into a full essay if I really got into it, so I’ll leave it at this.) I’d like to think that they’d eventually end up together in a romantic sense, but I can also see them just being really good friends for the rest of their lives, too. By the end of SR2 or the beginning of SR3 they’ve built the sort of relationship that stands the test of time, I think, regardless of what form it takes.
14. Describe in detail the Boss’s relationship with your favorite NPC.
Might seem like a strange choice of NPC, but I really liked Kia, Cyrus Temple’s second-in-command. A kickass woman of color in a position of power? Hell yeah, I’m all about that. Mar, though, is significantly less about that, and actually just fucking hates her, plain and simple. If she didn’t already dislike her for being with STAG, she certainly hated her after she kidnapped Shaundi in SR3.
The funny thing is that I think Mar and Kia aren’t fundamentally different from one another. What I mean by that is that they’re both willing to go to the same ruthless lengths to get the results they’re looking for, and they’re both looking for basically the same thing: Total control and erasure of their enemies. I can’t honestly say that Mar wouldn’t have done the all the same things as Kia were their positions switched, down to the t, and it’s something that she probably will deny to her dying breath and then a minute longer. Mar tends to have a lot in common with her enemies, unfortunately, and Kia’s no exception.
Though I’d actually be really interested in seeing what would happen if the two of them happened to run across each other before they were Mortal Enemies. It’d either be an immediate attraction or they’d hate each other’s guts right off the bat. I’m not entirely sure which. I think it would depend on how they met, maybe? If it was in any sort of competitive situation they’d quickly see the other as their biggest threat, which would put them back in the same boat that they’re in during SR3, but if it was, I don’t know, meeting in some club in Steelport while Mar’s on a business trip and Kia’s on shore leave…? I don’t know if they’d be too similar to one another to be ultimately be anything but rivals, but I’m certainly not going to say that the idea of them having a crazily coincidental one night stand before the whole Saints vs STAG thing happens is a bad one.
